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(a mile down the railway track), Brinkley, Arkansas
Age 72?
"Mama was owned by Master Barton. She lived on the line of North Carolina and South Carolina. Her husband was
sold away from her and two children. She never seen him no more. Rangments was made with Master Barton to let
Master Liege Alexander have her for a cook. Then she went to Old Pickens, South Carolina. Liege Alexander had a
white wife and by her he had two girls and a boy. He had a black cook and by her he had two boys and a girl. One
of these boys was my papa and I told you the old man bought my mama from Master Barton for his colored son. My
papa never was sold you see cause he was the old white man's boy. After his white wife died his two girls married
and the boy left Old Pickens, and they told his colored wife and her two boys and girl if they would stay and take
care of him as long as he lived they could have the property. My papa went off five or six miles and built him a log
house.
"The old man --- Master Liege Alexander --- was blind when his wife died and he had to be tended to like a child.
He would knock his stick on the wall and some of the small children would lead him about where he wanted to go.
His white children didn't like the way he had lived so they didn't want to be bothered with him.
"My parents' names was Cheney Barton and Jim Alexander. Papa was medium dark and so was his own brother but
their sister was as white as the white woman's two girls and boy.
"After the railroads sprung up the town moved to New Pickens.
"Master Liege Alexander had lots of slaves and land. I reckon the white wife's children fell heir to the farm land.
"My aunt and grandma cooked for him till he died. They kept him cleam and took care of him like as if his white
wife was living. The colored wife and her girl waited on the white wife and her children like queens. That is what
papa said.
"Durin' slavery there was stockmen. They was weighed and tested. A men would rent the stockman and put him in a
room with some young women he wanted to raise children from. Next morning when they come to let him out the
man ask him what he done and he was so glad to get out. Then women nearly kill him. If he said nothin' they
wouldn't have to pay for him. Them women nearly kill him. Some of the slave owners rented these stockmen. They
didn't let them work in the field and they kept them fed up good.
"Fore the Civil War broke out name said Master Barton hid a half bushel solid gold and silver coins over the
mountains. He had it close to the spring awhile. Mama had to go by it to tote water to the house. She said she never
bothered it. He said he could trust her and she wouldn't well a lie. He took another sack of money over the
mountains and the silverware. His wife died during the war. A lot of people died from hearing of the war --- heart
failure. I don't know what become of his money. He lost it. He may forgot where he hid it. It was after his wife died
that he sold mama to Jim Alexander's papa.
"The Yankess rode three years over the country in squads and colored folks didn't know they was free. I have seen
them in their old uniforms riding around when I was a child. White folks started talking about freedom fore the
darkies and turning them loose with the clothes they had on and what they could tote away. No land, no home, no
place; they roamed around.
"When it was freedom the thing papa done was go to a place and start out share croppin'. Folks had no horses or
mules. They had to plough new ground with oxen. I ploughed when I was a girl, ploughed oxen. If you had horses
or mules and the Yankses come along three or four years after the war, they would swap horses, ride a piece, and if
they had a chance swap horses again. Stealing went on during and long after the war.
"The Ku Klux was awful in South Carolina. The colored folks had no church to go to. They gather around at folks'
houses to have preaching and prayers. One night we was having it at our house, only I was the oldest and was in
another room sound asleep on the bed. There was a crowd at our house. The Ku Klux come, pulled off his robe and
door face, hung it up on a nail in the room, and said, 'Where's that Jim Jesus?' He pulled him out the room. The
crowd run off. Mama took the three little children but forgot me and run off too. They beat papa till they thought he
was dead and throwed him in a fence corner. He was beat nearly to death, just cut all to pisess. He crawled to my
bed and woke me up and back to the steps. I thought he was dead --- bled to death --- on the steps. Mama come
back to leave and found he was alive. She doctored him up and he lived thirty years after that. me left that morning.
"The old white woman that owned the place was rich --- big rich. She been complaining about the noise --- singing
and preaching. She called him Praying Jim Jesus till he got to be called that around. He prayed in the field. She said
he disturbed her. Mama said one of the Ku Klux she knowed been raised up there close to Master Barton's but papa
said he didn't know one of them that beat on him.
"Papa never did vote. I don't vote. I think women should vote much as men. They live under the same law.
"I come to Arkansas about forty-five years ago. Papa brought us to a new country, thought we could do better. I
been farming, cooking, washing. I can't do my own cooking and washing now. I got rheumatiam in my joints, feet,
knees, and hands. We don't get no help of no kind.
"My daughter is in Caldwell, New Jersey at work. She want there to get work. She heard about it and went and
haven't come home. I jes' got one child."
Interviewer Beulah Sherwood Hagg"
